Thursday, June 10, 2010

Oscar Grant Case Missing Black Faces on Jury

by Dr. Boyce Watkins

On New Year's day of 2009, Oscar Grant was shot in Oakland, California. The shooter was a Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer by the name of Johannes Mehserle. Grant was 22-years old at the time of his death, and the shooting was captured by cell phone cameras and disseminated throughout the Internet. Adding insult to injury, the Grant family just found that there will be no African American jurors in the trial of grant's shooter.

Jack Bryson, whose sons were with Grant the night he was killed, was angry about the jury selection.

"This is like a slap in the face," Bryson told The Associated Press. "This case came all the way to Los Angeles after the judge in Alameda County said they couldn't get a fair and impartial jury there. "This is the best you can do, and you did this in two days. We could've stayed back in Oakland for this."